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Auburn, Alabama
Auburn is a city in Lee County, Alabama. With a population of 53,380, it is the largest city in Lee County and in East Alabama. Auburn is a historic college town and is the home of Auburn University. It is Alabama's fastest-growing metropolitan area and the nineteenth fastest-growing metro area in the United States since 1990. U.S. News ranked Auburn among its top ten list of best places to live in the United States for the year 2009. Demographics As of the 2010 U.S. Census, the racial composition of the city is: 70.72% White (37,750) 17.75% Black or African American (9,474) 11.53% Other (6,156) 29.4% (15,693) of Auburn residents live below the poverty line, most of those being college students. Theft rate statistics Auburn is one of the safer higher populated-cities in the states, but the theft and murder rates aren't very low. The city reported 19 Pokemon thefts in 2018, and averages 2.44 murders a year. Pokemon See the Lee County page for more info. Fun facts * After the Civil War, Auburn's economy entered a prolonged depression that would last the remainder of the century. Public schools did not reopen until the mid-1870s, and most businesses remained closed. A series of fires in the 1860s and 1870s gutted the downtown area. East Alabama Male College was turned over to the state in 1872, and with funds from the federal Morrill Act was renamed Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical College with a new mission as a land grant college. Passage of the Hatch Act in 1887 allowed for expansion of agricultural research facilities on campus. In 1892, the college became the first four-year college in Alabama to admit women. This, combined with increased interest in scientific agriculture and engineeringand new funding from business licenses, allowed the city to start expanding again. By 1910, Auburn's population had returned to its antebellum level. SIAA Conference championships won by the Auburn college's football team brought attention and support to Auburn, and helped fill the city's coffers. * A series of reports in the 1980s and 1990s ranking the Auburn public school system among the top in the state and nation convinced thousands of new residents to move to Auburn over the past 25 years. Between 1980 and 2003, Auburn's population grew by 65%, and Auburn's economy expanded by 220%. With growth came issues of urban sprawl, which has become the primary political issue in Auburn at the turn of the 21st century. * Auburn and Opelika are among the luckier cities in the state when it comes to tornadoes. Although in quite a tornado prone area, neither city has been struck by a tornado rated F3 or higher since 1944. * Auburn has no shortage of amenities to offer. It has a satellite campus of the Georgiabama Battle Academy, no shortage of fast food, plenty of golfing opportunities and a couple of country clubs, dollar stores, some shopping centers, the Auburn Mall, some chain restaurants, Winn-Dixie, Walmart, Nintendo World, plenty of auto parts places and car dealerships, a complex of a few contest halls, a showcase theater complex, a few sports complexes, the Auburn University Regional Airport, plenty of public battle fields, plenty of local restaurants and businesses, plenty of hotels, Sam's Club, Academy Sports + Outdoors, Kroger, the Kreher Reserve & Nature Center, a soccer complex, and plenty more to offer. * The southwest and west regions of the city on the plateau are marked by rolling plains and savannahs, with the undeveloped portion primarily being used for cattle grazing and ranching. South of this region sits the coastal plain, with sandy soil and pine forest. Parts of north Auburn have much more rugged topographies, with thick forests in high hills and deep hollows of the type common to parts of eastern Tennessee. The region surrounded by Chewacla Park in the south of the city contains sharp peaks and sudden drops of elevation as the 1.05 billion-year-old rock of the Appalachians meets the coastal plain. * Growth slowed somewhat in the 1970s, and a series of budget cuts made it clear that Auburn's sole economic reliance on Auburn University put the city in a tenuous position. Backlash against what was seen as an ineffectual city council led to the election of Jan Dempsey as mayor in 1980 and the removal of the previous city government system in favor of a council-manager system. With a new government in place, the city began aggressively pursuing industry, leading to a nearly 1,200% increase in the number of industrial jobs over the next twenty years. As public satisfaction with the city administration reached record levels, Auburn began very rapid residential growth. * Money began to flow into Auburn again with America's entry into World War II. Auburn's campus was turned into a training ground for technical specialists in the armed forces. After the war, Auburn was flooded by soldiers returning to school on the G.I. Bill. Primarily due to this influx of students, Auburn began a period of growth that lasted through the 1950s and 1960s. A considerable amount of residential and business construction pushed Auburn's growth outside of the original boundaries of the city, leading to a series of large annexations which expanded Auburn to nearly 24 square miles (62 km2). Construction of Interstate 85 beginning in 1957 connected Auburn to the major cities of the state. This allowed for Auburn University (renamed in 1960) to schedule more home football games in Auburn rather than in larger cities, creating a strong tourism component in Auburn's economy. Auburn Mall opened as "Village Mall" in 1973. Category:Alabama Cities